Mounts were generally expensive in the past, but their prices have been reduced while the training to ride them increased in order to compensate. However, some mounts do not cost any gold or other currencies (such as honor points) and will drop at very low drop rates from bosses in instances such as Stratholme, Zul'Gurub, Tempest Keep, Magisters' Terrace, Sethekk Halls, Karazhan, and Utgarde Pinnacle. There are numerous other methods to obtain mounts as well, such as class quests, completing achievements, and even a select few rare spawns drop mounts.

Mounts have a 1.5 second cast time, which will be interrupted by taking any damage, moving, or entering combat. Mounts also have a special emote that can be seen by either jumping (the Space key by default) while not moving or performing the /mountspecial slash command. For example hawkstriders will shriek and horses will rear up on their hind legs.

Ground mounts cannot fly, but flying mounts are able to run (or fly) along the ground in areas where flight is prohibited. Both flying and ground mounts can swim (but not any faster than swimming without a mount). Aquatic mounts can walk on land (but not any faster than walking without the mount). Vanity mounts confer no benefits (and thus, require no riding skill or character level).}}

There are five general tiers of riding which can be learned from trainers as a character increases in level. These become available for characters to train once they meet the particular level requirements. The speed of a character's mounts generally increases with each tier of riding skill, while some tiers of riding grant the ability to ride flying mounts. The general riding skills are:

In areas where flying is allowed, a character typically needs to train a specific riding skill in order to unlock the ability to fly in that region. These types of skills and their requirements can be found in the table below.

Shaman and Druids acquire shapeshift forms ([Ghost Wolf] for shaman and [Travel Form] for druids) that increase their movement speed (not as much as a mount, but it is trainable at an earlier level), while Hunters get aspects to boost their own movement speed and that of their party. Rogues and druids (in [Cat Form]) have an ability to temporarily increase movement speed. Here are the skills and abilities that provide some classes with a bit of a faster mount movement speed, either passively or by the activation of an ability.

[Pursuit of Justice] in the Retribution talent tree (tier 3). Increases your movement speed (and mounted movement speed) by 8%/15%. This does not stack with other speed increasing effects.

[Crusader Aura] at level 62. Movement speed while mounted is increased by 20%. The mounted movement speed increase does not stack with other effects.

[Aura Mastery] in the Holy tree (tier 3) does not directly increase mounted movement speed, but it does boost Crusader Aura. With these two abilities combined, it is possible to increase mounted movement speed by 40% for 6 seconds every 2 minutes.

These last two items effectively increase a mount's speed by 10%. However, they do not stack with the previously mentioned methods, so they are approximately (see below) a 1% improvement over using the above 3 items combined. It should be also noted that for players of WotLK the Riding Crop is only usable for two levels (69 and 70), and the Skybreaker Whip only for one level (70).

All speed improvement items work on both normal and flying mounts (with the exception of npc controlled point-to-point flight).

0300 Characters higher than level 70 will not benefit from mount speed improvement items and enchants.
With Cataclysm, the following are no longer available:

[link]Click here to reveal the list of racial mounts (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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The face of a Grey Riding Yak.

Racial land mounts are typically the first mounts players will acquire. To purchase a racial land mount, players must either purchase their race's mount (such as horses for humans, or wolves for orcs), or gain exalted standing with that race's representative faction (such as exalted with Darnassus to purchase sabers). Flying mounts do not require any reputation rating.

In the initial release of 0400 Cataclysm, the worgen did not get a racial mount, but instead used the ability [Running Wild] to achieve mount-like speeds. However, a mountain horse mount (regular and swift) was added in Patch 4.3 as the worgen racial mount.

[link]Click here to reveal the list of class-specific mounts (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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An Azure Cloud Serpent.

There are four classes in the game that can acquire special mounts and abilities linked to their own class through lore: death knights, druids, paladins, and warlocks. The original quests to gain the paladin charger, warlock dreadsteed, and druid's swift flight form are all still in-game and reward feats of strength if they are completed. The aforementioned quests are not required to learn the ability, however, and are on the class trainers at the level listed in the table.

Druid and paladin abilities are slightly different based on race and faction. For example, the Alliance charger is blue and golden, while the Horde version is red and bronze. Similarly, night elf druids are black in flight form, while tauren are tan. With Cataclysm, it seems that tauren and draenei paladins will not be getting chargers, but special types of Kodo and Elekk mounts, respectively.[3][4]

[link]Click here to reveal the list of rare drop mounts (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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Rarely, specific creatures will drop a mount as a reward. If the mount drops, only one mount will appear per kill, no matter the size of the party or raid killing the creature. Also, mounts may rarely be inside other containers rewarded for doing other objectives.

[link]Click here to reveal the list of guaranteed drop mounts (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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The Time-lost Proto Drake.

A guaranteed drop mount will result in one mount being awarded upon killing the specified creature under the condition listed, regardless of the size of the party or raid. For mounts rewarded such that everyone who completes the achievement gets the mount, see the "Achievements" section. There is no direct achievement for killing the Time-Lost Proto-Drake; the hard part is actually finding the drake alive.

Amphibious mounts confer a slight increase in swim speed, but move no faster than walking while on land. Amphibious mounts do not give their riders the ability to breathe underwater, so plan accordingly with one of appropriate items or abilities.

Aquatic mounts confer an increase in swim speed, but cannot be used at all on land. Aquatic mounts do not give their riders the ability to breathe underwater, so plan accordingly with one of appropriate items or abilities.

[link]Click here to reveal the list of holiday mounts (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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There are several disguises and time-limited items that are available during holidays. Disguises simply turn the player's mount into something "more festive" like a kodo or a reindeer but do not otherwise affect mount mechanics. Time-limited items exist only during the duration of the holiday itself. Previously, time-limited items had a set time such as seven or 14 days, but were changed to be directly tied to the holiday.

[link]Click here to reveal the list of mounts obtained outside of the game (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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A Tauren riding a Heart of the Aspects

A Blazing Hippogryph mount

The mounts in previous sections are acquired using solely in-game means. The mounts that follow require some real-world interactions, such as getting a rare loot card in the TCG, going to BlizzCon, the Recruit-A-Friend program, sending a Scroll of Resurrection, or purchasing mounts from the Blizzard Store.

[link]Click here to reveal the list of arena-reward mounts (it may take a few seconds to load)[/link]

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At the end of each Arena season, the top 0.5% of teams in the 3v3 and 5v5 bracket each battlegroup are rewarded with a 310% speed flying mount. Such mounts are inherently time-limited and are not currently available.

With careful use of Eagle Eye or Far Sight, it is possible to see why Flying Mounts were not allowed in the old world until the Cataclysm expansion.

At BlizzCon 2009 it was revealed that flying mounts would be available in some form to use in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms with the release of the next expansion, titled "Cataclysm". Blizzard officials had previously stated that it was unlikely that they would allow flying mounts in these continents, since doing so would require them to re-design the continents with flying mounts in mind.

Throughout the first few years of World of Warcraft (up to and including Wrath of the Lich King), the Eastern Kingdoms and Kalimdor were unsuitable for flying mounts; there were visual glitches like mountains and high buildings whose tops could not be seen from ground-level, and places where the terrain abruptly changed from one tileset to another, creating a grossly unrealistic appearance in some areas. There were also zones which should have existed lore-wise, but were empty and unfinished.

With the release of World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, rebuilding the continents is precisely what zone developers did, allowing players to finally see the world of Azeroth from above.

Note: This is a genericsectionstub. You can help expand it by clicking Edit to the right of the section title.

Vanity mounts only exist to put the player on a mount. They confer generally no bonuses to movement speed, and thus require no riding skill. The two non-temporary, vanity mounts are the [Rickety Magic Broom], a fairly common reward for completing daily quests during Hallow's End, and the [Riding Turtle], available from the TCG.

Mounts have a special emote they can do: This can be invoked while motionless on the ground, either by the /mountspecial slash command, or by pressing the Space key

Flying mounts can perform a loop! Press Pitch Up or Pitch Down (normally Ins and Del) while in flight to perform a loop. On a Mac, the Help key, or the Fn+Del combination (on the laptop) will start it.

0300/0400Patch 4.0.1 (12-Oct-2010): All mounts now scale to the appropriate riding skill. This means that all 310% speed mounts earned from achievements or were awarded from this patch onward are 280% in order to match the current max riding skill, Artisan. Players who already have a 310% mount are grandfathered into the system.PvP mounts now cost 2,000

0300/0400Patch 4.0.1 (12-Oct-2010): Mounts that are both ground and flying will no longer need to be dismounted and then re-mounted to switch between types. This will now be automatic.

0300Patch 3.3.3 (2010-03-23): Battlegrounds will no longer award Marks of Honor. Items which previously required Marks of Honor will have their costs adjusted to remove these requirements.PvP mounts now cost 50,000

0300Patch 3.3.0 (08-Dec-2009): Knockbacks no longer dismount players. If on a flying mount, you will be knocked back a short distance before being able to resume flying.

0300Patch 3.2.2 (2009-09-22): Undocumented changeThe riding trainers in Thrallmar and Honor Hold are now part of the Orgrimmar and Stormwind factions respectively. Note also that this change doesn't apply to trainers in Northrend.

The cast time for summoning any ground or flying[5] mount is now 1.5 seconds, down from 3 seconds.

Apprentice Riding (Skill 75): Can now be learned at level 20 for 4. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 20 directing them to the riding trainer.

Journeyman Riding (Skill 150): Can now be learned at level 40 for 50. Mail will be sent to players who reach level 40 directing them back to the riding trainer.

Expert Riding (Skill 225): Can now be learned at level 60 for 600 from trainers in Honor Hold or Thrallmar. Faction discounts now apply (Honor Hold for Alliance; Thrallmar for Horde). Flight speed at this skill level has been increased to 150% of run speed, up from 60%.

New Vanity Pet and Mount changes: Players will now be able to access their non-combat pets and mounts by clicking on the pets tab in the Character Info panel. These pets and mounts will be now learnable much like spells or abilities. Once a vanity pet or mount is learned, the icon will disappear from within a player's inventory and reappear in the appropriate tab under the pet tab under Character Info. Say goodbye to your vanity pets and mounts taking up bag and bank slots! Lost pets and mounts (one time quest rewards) can be recovered by visiting a stablemaster.

0200Patch 2.3.0 (13-Nov-2007):Nutral, the flight master in Shattrath City, now has a quest for characters who are level 70 and do not yet have a riding skill of 225. The quest will direct a character to visit the appropriate riding instructor in Shadowmoon Valley so that the player will know where they can purchase the skill necessary to use a flying mount.

0100Patch 1.12.1 (26-Sep-2006): The riding skill has been changed. A riding skill of 75 is now needed to ride level 40 mounts and a skill of 150 for level 60 mounts. Those that already have mounts will automatically be granted the appropriate level skill.

0100Patch 1.12.0 (22-Aug-2006): The Items that summon mounts have been changed in their color/quality. Items that summon normal mounts are now blue (superior) items and items that summon swift mounts are now purple (epic) items.

0100Patch 1.6.0 (12-Jul-2005): Clarified the error message when trying to attack while mounted.

0100Patch 1.5.0 (2005-06-07): Many of the Swift Mounts have gained eye glows and some have had other tweaks made to them to improve their looks.

0100Patch 1.4.0 (2005-05-05): Level 60 mounts purchased at vendors now have a whole new look. Faster undead mounts already have a different look and so have not changed. The new mounts can be seen standing near the mount vendors. If you have one of the old fast mounts, you can exchange it for one with a new look at the mount vendor.

0100Patch 1.3.0 (07-Mar-2005): Mounts now are Horde or Alliance restricted in the tooltip. We do not intend to allow Horde players to ride Alliance vendor-purchased mounts and vice versa.

0100Patch 1.2.0 (18-Dec-2004): Players will now be able to purchase and train mounts from other races in their faction. However, you will first need to obtain "Exalted" reputation status with that race in order to do so. Mounts of the opposing faction are not available for purchase.